Examining longer-term effects of parental death in adolescents and young adults: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health

ABSTRACT

Using longitudinal data spanning a 7-year period, we investigated the behavioral and psycho-social effects resulting from a parent’s death during early childhood or teenage years on adolescent and early adulthood functioning. Findings confirmed previous work demonstrating various behavioral problems and social-psychological adjustment deficits during adolescence. Results suggested that most detrimental adjustment behaviors among parentally bereaved youth fade as they entered into young adulthood. Yet, premature school withdrawals and diminished interests in college attendance at Wave 1 left many of these young adults with diminished academic accomplishments, lingering economic disadvantages and for females a hesitancy to marry as their lives progressed into adulthood.

Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth), a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris, designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. Opinions reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting agencies.